Gaberone

We landed Wednesday in Gaberone Botswana. After what was the quickest and most delightful flight I have ever experienced. We flew air Botswana and there were more flight attendants on the plane than there were passengers. The rather large aircraft was open seating, meaning I could have had 5 rows or so to myself. About 5 minutes after takeoff the pilot turned off the fasten seatbelt sign, it was that gentle of a flight. After flying no more than 10 minutes the pilot came on and said "we have now reached our cruising altitude of 26,000 feet." Less than 1 mintue later he came back on and said "we will now begin our descent into the Gabs airport." I cracked up, and I think that it is a running joke of air Botswana. Customs and passport control were quite simple for Jessica and I, Eric of course picked the witch and was given the good third degree for 5 minutes. Mine talked the entire time on her cell phone and never even looked me in the eye. Customs was a bit odd for two reasons, (1) they gave Eric a hard time and (2) because they made the mistkae of opening my poster tube then spent 15 minutes getting them back into the tube.

I officially took on a new title less than 3 hours into my stay in Botswana. Driver! Tim was asked to drive to the airport and pick up Caroline, problem was Tim cannot drive a stick. So I was the only person in the group that can, and therefore I earned my new title. Which after 2 days in Gabs appears to have stuck. The only problem with my new role in this field visit is that I have never driven on the wrong ide of the road before. I never driven internationally and therefore has NO IDEA what I was doing. My driving "coach" TaTa was cracking up. After running two red lights and turning 2 times into oncoming traffic, I was an expert in it (Kinda). All the other drivers seemed to take it in stride and gave me a sad "silly american" look (A look which I have now become highly accoustomed to). Looks which we all have notice we get EVERYWHERE, you would think that these people have never seem a white girl with a southern accent. LOL. Anyways, we got Caroline from the airport. The next challenge was the gas station. Honestly, I wish all gas stations in the US worked the way they do in Botswana. It is well known in my household that I don't like to pump gas, here that is not an issue as it is done for you. They also wash your windows, and add air to your tires while you wait. But one of the essentials of visiting the gas stations, not just here but globally, is knowing what type of gas the car takes. Three phone calls later it was suggested that we smell the gas to figure out what type it is, we left that lovely job to the attendants. Our tip was a whole 7 pule (1 US Dollar), and we debated if that was enough. Turns out that 60% of the workers here make less than 14 pula a day I was floored!

Nothing else terrible exciting about that day. We went to the mall and bought pre paid cell phones, ate dinner and went to bed. Jet Lag Baby!